Obama Unveils NASA’s Plans To Send Humans To Mars In The 2030s

President Barack Obama used an op-ed on CNN Tuesday to release NASA’s plan to put a man on Mars during the 2030s.

“We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America’s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth,” Obama wrote.

The president said within the next two years, NASA will collaborate with private companies to send Americans to the International Space Station, with more than 1,000 companies currently working on space initiatives.

In what it calls the “Earth Reliant” phase from now through the 2020s, the International Space Station will play a major role.

“Astronauts are learning about what it takes to live and work in space for long periods of time, increasing our understanding of how the body changes in space and how to protect astronaut health,” NASA wrote.

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“We’re also working with our commercial crew and cargo partners to provide access to low-Earth orbit and eventually stimulate new economic activity, allowing NASA to continue using the station while preparing for missions beyond,” it added.

The next phase, called “Proving Ground,” will start taking shape in November of 2018.

“The mission, Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), will carry the Orion spacecraft (without astronauts) thousands of miles beyond the moon during an approximately three week mission. Next up, astronauts will climb into Orion for a similar mission, traveling farther than humans have ever traveled before,” NASA wrote.

During the 2020s, NASA will send astronauts on a year-long deep space mission, it said.

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The final phase, “Earth Independent,” will “send humans to low-Mars orbit in the early 2030s,” NASA wrote. “This phase will also test the entry, descent and landing techniques needed to get to the Martian surface and study what’s needed for … ‘living off the land.'”

NASA said a future Mars Rover mission is already set for 2020, with “a round-trip robotic demonstration mission with sample return in the late 2020s.’

In 2004, President George W. Bush had established a goal of returning to the moon by 2020 with the goal of eventually sending humans to Mars.